


Houseguests

by ebonyfeather



Series: Spike at the ARC [9]
Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Primeval
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-31
Updated: 2011-12-31
Packaged: 2017-10-28 14:24:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/308804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ebonyfeather/pseuds/ebonyfeather
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lester's children come to stay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> (Posted as three chapters due to length)

 

Lester was pacing. He had been going back and forth across his office for the past five minutes and it still wasn’t actually helping. He’d already called Spike and Connor to come up a few minutes earlier and now he waited, not really sure what he was going to do when they got here. If he’d had a bit more time, maybe…

 

The door opened and Connor came hurrying in, followed at a more leisurely saunter by Spike. The vampire avoided the small stripe of sunlight that had got in through the crack in the blinds and went to stand in front of Lester, blocking his path. He prevented Lester from going around him with a hand on his arm.

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

Lester looked into concerned eyes, noticing Connor watching him warily too.

 

“I’ve just had a call from my sister in law,” he began. “There’s been an accident. Amelia’s car was struck at a junction; the other driver ran a red light and hit the driver’s side of her car.”

 

“Is she okay?” Connor asked, knowing that despite their divorce, Lester was still on friendly terms with his ex wife. He had another horrible thought. “Were the kids in the car?”

 

“David was at his football practice but Amelia was taking Jessica to her friend’s house. She’s got a broken wrist and a few scrapes. She was lucky.”

 

“And Amelia?”

 

“Amelia has whiplash from the impact, and a broken leg as well as a few other minor cuts and bruises but the hospital says she can go home tomorrow.” He paused for a moment, looking at them both. “She’s asked me to take the kids until she can get around a little easier. With her leg, she can’t look after them at home and-”

 

Connor smiled. “James, it’s fine. Of course they should come and stay with you.”

 

“Yeah,” Spike chipped in. “We’ll help; I’m great with kids. Just ask Buffy. I looked after Dawnie while she was dead- Buffy, not Dawn- and we had some great times, me and the little bit.”

 

Lester remained silent, not meeting their eyes.

 

“They don’t know about us, do they?” Connor asked. “Do you want us to move out while they’re here? I’m sure Abby would let us have her spare room again if I asked.”

 

“No.” Lester’s response was immediate. That was the one thing he knew he didn’t want. “I’m not going to turn you out; I don’t want you to leave. Besides, they already know that you live there, Connor. It just means we’ll have to remember that they’re in the flat.”

 

“So, no shagging on the sofa while we’re watching TV,” Spike said, then grinned. “What? I’m helping.”

 

“It means that James will be staying in his room, and we’ll be staying in mine, right?” Connor asked. “Nothing over PG rating in front of the kids, or anywhere they might walk in or overhear. And Spike will wear clothing when he sleeps so we don’t have to worry about him wandering about in the buff.”

 

Grateful, Lester nodded. He should have known that Connor and Spike would support him in this, help him out however much they could.

 

“So what are you going to tell them?” Spike asked. “Just so we don’t get our stories crossed.”

 

Now that was the big question, wasn’t it? How exactly did he explain a vampire living in his flat, in Connor’s bed?

 

“I’ll just tell them that you’re friends of mine, at least to begin with,” he said decisively. Glancing at his watch, he swore.

 

“I have to go and collect them. I don’t suppose you two could go back to the flat and have a bit of a tidy up, could you?”

 

Spike stood, ushering him out of the door. “Go. We’ll go hide the porn.”

 

“There isn’t any porn, James,” Connor told him, glaring at Spike. “We can sort it out. You go and get the kids.”

 

~.~

 

By the time Lester arrived back at the flat, the spare room had been changed back into the bedroom it was meant to be, the clutter removed and the bed made up. Connor had taken all of his books and his laptop from Lester’s room into his old bedroom, piled them in the corner and closed the door to hide the mess. They would have to put David in the study, Connor decided. There was a sofa bed in there that they pull out, and plenty of room for an eight year old.

 

“Better move anything that he shouldn’t be reading,” Connor said, collecting up any paperwork that mentioned the ARC or the creatures.

 

A squeak at his feet made him look down and he saw Sid and Nancy watching him curiously. Nancy looked up at the freshly made bed and he could see it in her eyes- it was part ‘where did the sofa go?’ and part ‘ooooh, something to jump on’.

 

“Don’t you dare,” he told her as she crouched to get a better leap up onto the bed. “Sorry, guys, but you’re moving into my room for a while. I’ll take you over to Abby’s soon and then you can go and play with Rex for a couple of days. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

 

They heard the sound of voices out in the hall, signalling Lester’s return.

 

“Too late. Spike, can you grab Nancy and I’ll bring Sid and their bed.”

 

They had just managed to get the two Diictodons into Connor’s room when the door opened and Lester came in. Spike went to get the bags from him, taking them to the two rooms, while Connor tried to keep out of the way.

 

“Jessica, David, you remember Connor, don’t you?”

 

David nodded, smiling. Since finding out that Connor knew lots about dinosaurs, as well as video games, they’d quickly become friends. Jessica remained a little more aloof, merely muttering ‘hi’ to him. She was cradling her wrist to her, a bright purple cast covering it, and there were a few scrapes visible on her cheek from the accident.

 

“And this is Spike,” Lester introduced, as the vampire returned.

 

Now Jessica looked interested. Spike actually got a smile.

 

~.~

 

Lester had just returned to the kitchen after showing the kids to their rooms when there was a scream. The three of them all made a dash for Jessica’s room, tripping over David on the way as he came out to see what all of the excitement was about.

 

“It went under the bed!” she told them as soon as they reached the door. She was standing on her bed, looking around nervously.

 

Connor glanced at Spike. “If it’s a spider, I’m not getting it.”

 

With a sigh, Spike crouched down and peered under the bed as Lester tried to calm his daughter down. He grinned, reaching under the bed.

 

“Well, it’s not a spider but it is a pest,” he said to Connor, dragging a squirming, protesting Nancy out and picking her up. He took a pink t-shirt with the word Princess across the front of it in sparkly letters away from Nancy and handed it to Jessica. “Yours, I presume. Unless your dad has something he’d like to tell us.”

 

That made Jessica smile before she looked back at the diictodon, still wriggling against Spike’s grip on her.

 

“She’s called Nancy. She’s harmless,” Lester told her, offering her a hand to help her down off the bed. After a minute, she took it. “There are two of them and they were _supposed_ to be locked in Connor’s room,” he added with a pointed look at Connor and Spike.

 

Jessica was still eyeing Nancy curiously. She half reached out a hand to pet her but pulled it back at last minute, looking to her dad.

 

“She doesn’t bite?”

 

To prove it, Lester petted the top of Nancy’s head, the little creature making a happy squeaking sound as he did so. Eventually, Jessica reached out again.

 

“It’s okay,” Connor told her. “My friend Abby is going to look after them while you’re here. I was going to take them over to her this evening.”

 

Gently stroking Nancy’s head in the same way she would a dog, Jessica frowned.

 

“She just scared me, that’s all. You don’t have to send them away.”

 

Connor heard Sid’s cries from his room, missing Nancy, and went to get him. The door must have swung shut behind Nancy, trapping Sid, and he wasn’t happy about it.

 

“Can we keep them here?” David asked, barging into the room and giving away the fact he’d been listening in. “Please, dad? They’re cool.”

 

Looking between his children, Lester sighed. “Fine. Though you many regret that decision the first time you find one of your shoes half-eaten.”

 

David shared none of his sister’s hesitation, going to pet Sid straight away.

 

“Can they fetch?” he asked Connor. “Can I play with them?”

 

After a nod from Lester, Connor and Spike put the two creatures down on the floor again. Sid scampered after David as he hurried into the living room but Nancy just sat down, looking up at Jessica.

 

“It’s okay. She can stay in here if she wants.”

 

Lester lifted her bag up onto the bed so that Nancy couldn’t steal anything else while she unpacked, hesitating.

 

“Does your wrist hurt?” he asked. “I could get you one of your pain tablets. Or help you unpack, if you wanted me to.” When Jessica rolled her eyes at him he held his hands up in surrender. “Sorry, it’s just that I was worried about you.”

 

Connor and Spike, waiting outside, heard the sadness in Lester’s voice and the lack of response from Jessica, and it took all of Connor’s willpower not to hug him when he came out, closing the door behind him.

 

“She’s unpacking,” Lester told them, as though he didn’t know they’d been listening.

 

~.~

 

That evening, Connor and Spike met with the rest of the team in the local pub, leaving Lester to have some time with his children. It seemed strange without Lester there; since they’d become involved, Lester always came out with them for a drink.

 

It just didn’t seem the same, though.

 

“Let’s go back,” Spike said after a couple of hours. “The munchkins will be asleep by now, so we won’t be disturbing anything.”

 

Connor nodded and they took the short walk back to Lester’s flat, going in quietly. They were almost to Connor’s room when a voice asked,

 

“And what time do you call this?”

 

Connor turned back to the living room, seeing Lester sitting on the sofa, the TV on with the sound turned down low.

 

“It’s not that late,” he protested.

 

Lester smiled. “That’s exactly what I mean. I thought you were going out on the town with the rest of the team.”

 

Spike dropped into Lester’s lap, his knees either side of Lester’s legs on the sofa. “We were, but we missed you. Besides, I’m hungry, and I’m in the mood for a James-flavoured snack,” Spike told him, leaning in to nibble gently on the side of Lester’s neck.

 

For a moment, Lester let his head fall to the side to give Spike more room, but then he suddenly sat up straight again.

 

“I can’t: what about the children?”

 

Spike took Lester’s hand and climbed off the sofa, pulling Lester up with him. He led him into Connor’s room, Connor following them in and closing the door behind them.

 

“Their rooms aren’t next to mine,” Connor reminded him. “It’ll be fine. Come on, James, please?”

 

Between Connor’s pleading look and Spike slowly removing his shirt as his hand roamed, Lester took one last look at the door and sighed. How the bloody hell was he supposed to resist the pair of them when they teamed up?

 

Connor grinned and pounced on him, kissing him hard. It had been strange not being able to touch their lover all day, not being able to show him any affection. Even at work they didn’t have to be so secretive, not since Helen had blurted out the truth about their relationship a few months ago.

 

“I’ll set the alarm so that we’re up early enough for you to get back to your own room,” Connor promised. “They’ll never know where you spent the night.”

 

Lester smiled gratefully. “Thank you. I know this isn’t easy for you two. I just wanted to tell you that I appreciate your efforts.”

 

Spike smirked and finished unfastening Lester’s belt. “Don’t start getting soppy on us,” he joked, before his tone turned serious. “We know how important it is that everything goes okay, and so we’ll do what we can to help. For now, though, we’ve got you to ourselves so I think we need less talk and more shagging.”

 

Lester kicked his shoes off and watched as Connor and Spike stripped, climbing onto the bed with him. He was still wary about this, what with the children in the flat, but he had missed the contact as much as the other two. Spike pushed him back onto the bed, crawling over him and pressing his slightly cool body along Lester’s. Leaning down, he stole a kiss.

 

He moved lower, tasting his way down Lester’s body until he could lick a stripe along the underside of Lester’s cock.

 

At Lester’s nod, he took Lester into his mouth, sucking, licking, and making the other man utter a low groan of satisfaction.

 

“Quiet now,” Connor teased, putting a hand over Lester’s mouth. “If you can’t be quiet, we’ll have to gag you.”

 

Spike lifted his head and smiled. “I think he likes that idea.”

 

Connor laughed softly. From Lester’s reactions it certainly appeared that way, something Connor hadn’t expected. He had never assumed Lester would like that.

 

“We can save that idea for later, when we’ve got the time to play,” he said. For now, they were going to have to be quick and quiet.

 

Spike continued to tease, never letting Lester reach his climax, backing off each time he sensed that the other man was close.

 

“Can I?”

 

Lester didn’t even need to ask what he wanted permission for, nor did he have to consider the answer.

 

“Yes- wait, Spike. No visible marks.”

 

Spike grinned at him. “None’s going to see ‘em, trust me,” he said, his features changing as he sank his teeth into Lester’s skin, in the crease of his leg, just over his femoral artery.

 

“Fuck…”

 

Lester’s eyes rolled back as he came, Spike drinking his fill and then licking over the wound to heal it again.

 

Letting Lester catch his breath, Connor pulled Spike in for a kiss, smiling when his fingers touched something wet in Spike’s hair. Trailing a finger through it, he turned to Lester.

 

“You got him all dirty.”

 

Lester smirked. “So I did.” He turned on his side, a hand under his head. “I like it.”

 

Connor crawled over him, laying his body alongside Lester and kissing him. Spike grumbled for a moment about feeling left out before curling around Connor, making the younger man grin and wriggle in Lester’s arms. Lester ran his hands down Connor’s back, over his arse, and realised what Spike was doing to make Connor react like that. Reaching over for the bottle of lube he’d seen Connor hide in the bedside cabinet, he passed it to Spike.

 

“Fuck him, Spike. Let me watch.” He heard a cap being snapped shut and the bottle being dropped on the floor, before Connor’s breath hitched.

 

“Now remember, Connor,” Lester teased, his hand covering Spike’s as two of the vampire’s fingers pressed into Connor. “Be quiet.”

 

Connor let out a low whimper, pushing back against Spike. “Please.”

 

Spike took another few moments to get him ready before sliding his cock into Connor, seeing Connor bite his lip to stop himself making any sound. Lester helpfully hooked his hands under Connor’s thighs, spreading him wider for Spike and holding him in his arms as Spike fucked him.

 

He could feel Connor’s hard cock pressed against his stomach, feel Connor trying to rub off against him, and smiled.

 

“No, Connor,” he whispered. “Not yet.”

 

Connor whined. “But James…”

 

Spike’s teeth nipped at Connor’s shoulder, not hard enough to draw blood but enough to stop Connor’s protests. Taking Connor hard, he then made sure that talking was the last thing on the younger man’s mind.

 

~.~

 

The following morning, Lester awoke as someone placed a cup of tea on the bedside table. He opened his eyes to see David trying not to spill the tea as he put the mug down. When he noticed that his dad was awake, David smiled.

 

“Spike said breakfast is ready,” he reported before turning and bolting for the door, calling back over his shoulder, “He’s making pancakes.”

 

“For breakfast?” But David was gone, leaving Lester to get out of bed and ready for work.

 

When he emerged ten minutes later, he found Spike loading pancakes onto the kids’ plates and pouring them more orange juice. He cringed as Connor poured a diabetic-coma-inducing amount of treacle over a stack of pancakes, an act copied by David.

 

“See? I told you that’d taste good.”

 

David grinned, forking breakfast into his mouth as fast as he could.

 

“Hey, niblet, you might want to chew some of that,” Spike pointed out. When he saw Lester he started toward him to greet him but stopped himself in time. Instead he smiled, the grin telling Lester all of the things he would have done, had the kids not been here. “Mornin’ James. Sleep well?”

 

He knew the answer to that perfectly well, Lester thought, as he’d spent the majority of it pressed between Spike and Connor. As promised, Connor had woken him at just after four this morning, giving him time to get back to his room before either of the children woke up. Unfortunately, he had then fallen asleep again, only to be woken by his alarm clock at five thirty.

 

“You didn’t have to make breakfast, Spike. I could have done it.”

 

Spike handed a plate of pancakes to Jessica. “There you go, love.”

 

Jessica tried to pick up the treacle but the cast on her arm meant that she couldn’t get hold of it properly. She tried again, this time knocking a mug over on the table beside her.

 

“I hate this stupid thing.”

 

Lester reached over to pick up the treacle, taking off the lid. “Let me help you.”

 

“I don’t want any help!”

 

Lester watched in dismay as she scraped her chair back from the table and went back to her room. He got up to follow her but Spike stopped him.

 

“You stay here with David and finish your breakfast,” he said, picking up the plate, treacle and a fork. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

 

Spike knocked on Jessica’s door before going in. The girl was sitting on her bed, her knees up to her chest with her arms around them.

 

“Here,” he said, putting the plate down beside her and sitting down on the end of the bed. “Before it gets cold.” There was a faint scuffling from under the bed and Nancy emerged, looking up at the food, her eyes sparkling. “Well, before Nancy gets it, anyway.”

 

Jessica smiled, picking up her pancakes and letting him put some treacle on them.

 

“You fancy talking about it?” She shook her head, eating quietly. “Okay then.”

 

As he got up to leave, she frowned. “That’s it?”

 

“What were you expecting?”

 

She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know.” There was a moment of silence and then, “I don’t like him treating me like a kid, wanting to do everything for me.”

 

Spike sat down again. “He’s just trying to help, pet. When he heard about the accident, your dad was really worried about you. I’ll tell you what- I’ll ask him to back off a bit, if you give him a break, okay?”

 

“Okay.”

 

“Good. Now, how about coming back to sit with us?”

 

Jessica nodded, eating the last of her breakfast and following him out, mumbling “Sorry, dad,” as she sat down.

 

Ten minutes later, the dishes were washed and put away and Lester was pulling his jacket on. He had already agreed with Jessica that she could take today off school given that she was still feeling a bit sore from the accident, but David wanted to go.

 

“Are you sure you’re alright to go to school?” he asked David as the boy stood in front of him, clutching his lunch bag. “You had a bit of a shock yesterday.”

 

He nodded, looking quite worried at the prospect of not going.

 

“Would you mind if Connor took you, while I take Jessica to Auntie Emma’s house?”

 

“Cool!” There was no hesitation on David’s part, eager to have Connor to talk to for the whole journey there.

 

Jessica, on the other hand, didn’t look quite as excited. “Can’t I just go with you today, dad? I won’t get in your way, I promise. Please?”

 

“You’d be bored there,” he told her, trying to put her off. It wasn’t as though he could tell her the real reason she wasn’t allowed in the ARC. “I’ve got work to do so I won’t be able to keep you company.”

 

“I can take my book, and I’ve got an essay due that I can write. I don’t want to go to Auntie Emma’s.”

 

Spike could see Lester trying desperately to come up with an excuse but, unfortunately, Jessica could see that too. The crestfallen look on her face made him take Lester to one side.

 

“She can stay with me if the team have to go out, or in your office. We can make sure no one tells her anything she shouldn’t know,” he said. “She just wants so see where her dad works.”

 

It was that which did it, Lester sighing loudly. “This is a bad idea,” he told Spike before turning back to his daughter. “Fine, but you have to promise me that you won't go wandering off. There are some places where you aren’t allowed to go.”

 

She nodded, hurrying back to her room and returning with a paperback novel, an A4 writing pad, pens and a text book.

 

~.~

 

Connor arrived at the ARC an hour later, just as Lester was starting to fret. It was a twenty minute journey to the school, give or take a few minutes for traffic, and then back to work. It shouldn’t take him an hour unless something had happened.

 

“Sorry,” Connor told him when he finally came hurrying through the door. “David wanted to show me his geography project, and then the teacher started talking to me.”

 

Lester frowned. David hadn’t shown him that project; he’d talked about it, but never offered to show it off.

 

“It’s just because I was there; it doesn’t mean anything,” Connor continued, seeing Lester’s expression. He moved to Lester, reaching out a hand before remembering that Jessica was in the room and stopped himself.

 

Lester looked up as Becker came into his office, pausing when he saw Jessica.

 

“Becker, come in. Jessica, could you give us a minute?”

 

Spike slung an arm around the girl’s shoulders and steered her out of the room.

 

“Come on, pet. Let’s go get a cuppa,” he said, before smirking in Becker’s direction. “And while Becker is in here, we can nick some of his biscuits. I know where he stashes them.”

 

Becker rolled his eyes at Spike. “Take Angel with you. He’s been hanging around my office looking bored for the past half hour.”

 

Spike led Jessica out, Connor following and veering off toward Abby’s office, heading for the break room.

 

“Who’s Angel?”

 

“Becker’s boyfriend,” Spike told her, pointing to the vampire in question when they reached Becker’s office. “Hey, nancy-boy, Becker sent us to get you out from under his feet.”

 

Angel glared at him but he stood up anyway, holding out his hand to Jessica.

 

“Since he can’t remember his manners, I’ll introduce myself,” he said with a pointed look toward Spike. “Hi, I’m Angel.”

 

“Jessica Lester.”

 

Angel eyed her curiously for a moment. “I heard you were staying with Lester, sorry, I mean your dad, for a while. How’s your arm?”

 

She shrugged her shoulders. “Okay, I suppose.” She looked up to Spike when she realised what she’d said but he just grinned.

 

“I won’t tell him if you don’t. Might as well get a few days off school if you can.”

 

They walked to the break room, Angel tagging along behind. When they walked in, the conversation stopped as everyone turned to look their way before it started up again. This time, Spike noticed, the language had been toned down with no mention of dinosaurs or anomalies.

 

“What does dad do?” Jessica asked. “He’ll never tell me. And why are there lots of soldiers? Does he do something dangerous?” Her eyes lit up. “Is he a spy like James Bond and this is all some super secret spy base.”

 

Spike laughed. “He’s not a spy. He, and the rest of us, protects the public from things that would hurt them. He-”

 

Jessica jumped, sloshing her tea over the side of the mug, as the anomaly detector started wailing. Around the room, the soldiers abandoned their mugs and scraped back their chairs, hurrying out.

 

“What’s going on? Was that a fire alarm?”

 

“No, it just means that them lot have to go to work. Anyway, didn’t you say you had an essay to write?”

 

She nodded, not looking particularly enthusiastic at the thought. “It’s history. It’s just so boring.”

 

Angel and Spike shared a look. “That’s because, in school, they don’t teach you the exciting bits,” Spike told her. “What are you studying? Maybe we can help; we’re good with history.”

 

~.~

 

Three hours later the field team returned, muddy and annoyed after having to chase what Becker referred to as ‘stupid overgrown chickens’ around a farmers field while trying in vain to make them go back through the anomaly. Connor had poked his head into the office on his way past, heading for the showers, just to let them know he was back. Normally, Spike would have waited until the others had finished and sneaked in to join Connor, but today he stayed where he was. Angel, on the other hand, wasn’t trying to keep anything a secret. Jessica already knew he was with Becker and so he excused himself with a smile.

 

“Hils might need some help,” he said. “You know, washing those hard to reach places.”

 

Spike glared at him, partly from frustration that he couldn’t do the same. Nodding in Jessica’s direction, he zipped a finger across his lips. Angel just grinned and left.

 

“Who’s Hils?”

 

“That would be Becker. His name is Hilary, but we only call him that when we really want to pis- annoy him.”

 

Jessica was silent for a minute, a frown on her face. A second later, she blushed. “Oh! So when Angel said help, he meant he and Becker were going to-”

 

“No, he didn’t _.” Bugger bugger bugger_! Lester was going to be pissed that they were corrupting his little girl.

 

“Its okay- I do know about this stuff. My friend Louise’s big brother, Darren, has got a boyfriend and the other day at her house, me and Louise walked in on them kissing. And Darren had his hands on Richard’s bum!” she added with a giggle. “It was so embarrassing!”

 

Spike heaved a sigh of relief. Kissing, minor groping; that wasn’t too bad. If that was the worst she thought Becker and Angel were doing right now then he’d take it.

 

“Is Connor your boyfriend?” she asked, the essay abandoned now that something more interesting had happened. “You sleep in his bedroom.”

 

How had the conversation ended up here? He thought. He really wanted to say yes, that not only was Connor his boyfriend but Lester was too. It would take away all of the hiding and secrecy, let them behave normally around the flat, but it wasn’t his place to tell her. If Lester wanted to, then that was his decision.

 

“Yes, Connor is my boyfriend,” he told her, watching the sappy smile appear on her face and seeing the questions forming in her mind. “Right, now where were we with this essay?”

 

Jessica reluctantly picked up her pen again, looking disappointed.

 

By the time Lester came down to check on them, the essay was almost finished and Spike was entertaining her with stories of the things that they _don’t_ put into the history books. He leaned down and kissed the top of her head, before apologising when she uttered a long-suffering, “Da-ad.”

 

“Sorry, sweetheart. I know, you’re getting too old for things like that. So, have you and Spike been keeping out of trouble?”

 

This time, both of them protested, much to Lester’s amusement.

 

“I meant to come down earlier to have lunch with you but something came up,” he continued.

 

Jessica smiled. “That’s okay. We decided to wait for you.” The pen was dropped onto the note pad again and she was on her feet. “Spike and Angel have been helping me with my history essay. Well, Angel was until he went to make out with Becker.”

 

Lester’s mouth dropped open. “What?”

 

“Come on, dad. Let’s get some dinner,” Jessica said, oblivious to his reaction. “I’m starving.”

 

Spike sighed. “I swear it’s not my fault.”

 

 

 

~.~

To be continued…

 

 

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

 

Lester walked toward the canteen with his daughter, Spike excusing himself and going off to find Connor. Whether it was to give Lester a bit of time with Jessica as he’d said, or just because he wanted to find Connor, Lester wasn’t sure. Either way, he was glad that Jessica’s mood had improved. She seemed to have taken a shine to Spike, even if he was apparently telling her way too much about things she shouldn’t be hearing.

 

“So what exactly did Spike say about Angel and Becker?” he asked casually as they took their sandwiches and Jessica’s slice of chocolate cake to a table and sat down. This was harder than he’d expected. How exactly did one have this conversation with a twelve year old? Maybe it was payback for his managing to avoid the birds and the bees talk with both of the kids earlier in their lives.

 

Jessica shrugged her shoulders. “Nothing. Just that Angel was Becker’s boyfriend. And that he’s Connor’s,” she added.

 

He’d told her? What the hell else had he said?

 

“Does it bother you that Spike and Connor are together? That they’re both boys.”

 

Shaking her head, Jessica struggled to unfasten the cardboard wrapper on the sandwiches one handed, eventually letting her dad take over and open it for her.

 

“No. It’s kind of cute.”

 

Lester ate his sandwich as he listened to Jessica telling him about the essay she was writing and the film she’d seen last week with her friends, all the while thinking about her utter lack of concern over the fact that Spike and Connor were in a relationship. He had expected her to be surprised at least.

 

~.~

 

Two days later, Lester was still thinking about it. Jessica had gone back to school this morning, meaning that he got a bit of time alone with Spike and Connor. Not much, as they had to set off to the ARC in a few minutes, but it was enough.

 

“I’ve been thinking about talking to Jessica,” Lester said casually. “About us. I’m not saying that I’d tell her everything, just maybe see how she’d feel about it.”

 

Spike nodded. “Well, she didn’t seem too bothered by Angel and Becker, or when she asked me about Connor. Apparently one of her mates at school has a brother who she and this mate walked in on with his boyfriend,” he informed Lester with a grin.

 

Lester sighed. That was the kind of thing he was worried about in the flat; although they had been careful, eventually someone was going to slip up and she was going to see something she shouldn’t. He would rather talk to her first than have her finding out in that way. But no matter how she seemed to be handling the knowledge about the others, it would be a bit different being her own dad.

 

“What about David?” Connor asked. “He seems pretty comfortable with me and Spike but I don’t think he’d really understand.”

 

He wouldn’t, Lester knew that. They would have to save that talk until he was a bit older. Glancing at his watch, Lester stood, picking up his jacket and briefcase.

 

“Come on, or we’re going to be late.”

 

Connor and Spike shared a look and before Lester knew it, he had an armful of Connor. Spike grabbed the briefcase and jacket from him at the same time as Connor spun Lester around and backed him against the door, going in for a kiss. This time, alone in the flat, there was none of the uneasy expectation of getting caught, or having to keep quiet in case one of the kids heard.

 

“Hey, let me have a turn,” Spike complained, easing in to take Connor’s place, pressed up against Lester as he kissed him.

 

“Do you think anyone would notice if we were an hour or so late?” Connor asked hopefully.

 

It was tempting, but Lester shook his head. “We can’t. I’ve got a meeting at nine thirty. One I can’t miss, even though I would much rather be here, back in bed with you two.”

 

Spike sighed, releasing Lester and reaching up to straighten his tie. He handed Lester the jacket and briefcase again.

 

“I’ve got a better idea,” he said, a mischievous gleam in his eyes. “Meet me in bunk room two at noon.”

 

Lester frowned. “There are cameras in there, you realise that, don’t you?”

 

Spike waved a hand dismissively. “Not like they work. Danny figured out how to loop the surveillance feed ages ago. Where do you think he vanishes off to when he wants a nap and doesn’t want anyone to find him?”

 

Well, you learn something new every day, Lester thought, making a mental note to look there if ever Quinn went AWOL again.

 

“I am not having sex in the bunk rooms,” Lester informed him. “It’s against regulations; we could get fired for that. And besides, it’s tacky.”

 

“Showers?”

 

Lester rolled his eyes. “No.”

 

“Spoilsport,” Spike grumbled, pouting.

 

As it happened, there was no time to play at work anyway. No sooner had they arrived than the detector sounded, sending them out for what would only be the first anomaly of the day. The second alert came before the first team had returned, opening up in a shopping mall in the middle of Leeds. As Abby, Connor, Becker and Danny were already out at the first site, it fell to Spike and Angel to deal with the second, along with Sarah.

 

“Are you two going to be alright to deal with this?” Sarah asked the two vampires, given that it was still daytime outside.

 

Angel nodded. “Most shopping malls don’t rely on windows for lighting the place up so we’ll be able to keep out of the sun. You’re driving, though.”

 

They piled into the vehicles, the two vampires in the centre seats, blankets at the ready in case the sun shifted enough to catch them through the front windscreen. They didn’t need them, though, the heavy, one-way tint that Lester had ordered applied to the vehicle windows so that the vampires could travel in them was effective in keeping out the sun. Three of Becker’s soldiers squeezed in as well and they were off.

 

The mall was ideal for the vampires; it was possible to get around almost the entire place without encountering any natural light. The car park had given them a bit of trouble, but Sarah had pulled the vehicle up right next to the entrance so that they could make a run for it. When a security guard tried to tell her to move it, she ignored him, letting Becker’s men inform him that they’d park where they bloody well liked, thank you very much.

 

“First floor,” she announced, checking the detector in her hand and then pointing. She need not have bothered, as a loud roar alerted them to the location of the anomaly as well as answering the question of whether anything had come through.

 

The anomaly had appeared in the middle of a clothing shop, panicking shoppers and staff alike, who had then run screaming from the shop when the two creatures came barging through.

 

“What are they?” Angel asked, watching the two dinosaurs as they proceeded to eat their way though the entire inventory of Chrissie’s Cookies, next door to the clothes shop.

 

“Haven’t a bloody clue,” Spike replied. “They’re gonna be sick, eating all those cookies.”

 

Sarah was standing just behind the two of them, looking at the shop front.

 

“There’s a shutter on the Cookie kiosk,” she whispered. “If we can close that, we can contain them until we work out how to get them back.”

 

Both vampires turned to her. “Why are you whispering? The greedy buggers are too busy getting a sugar rush to notice us,” Spike pointed out.

 

While they were distracted, Angel began edging his way toward the two creatures, one of the soldiers at his side, moving slowly so as not to attract their attention. One of the creatures spotted them as they got near and let out a roar to alert its companion but, before they could get back out over the counter, Angel and the soldier had them both tranquilised.

 

Spike came up beside them, looking at the two unconscious creatures on the floor in the narrow shop, broken cookies littering the floor, the dinosaurs’ mouths lined with crumbs and chocolate smudges.

 

“Question for you, genius,” he asked Angel. “How the hell do you plan to get them out of there and back through the anomaly now they’re out cold?”

 

Angel opened his mouth, ready to offer a sarcastic reply, when he stopped. He looked back at the dinosaurs and the tiny staff door at the back of the kiosk, then to the smirk on Spike’s face.

 

“Oh, shut up. What was your great plan, anyway?” he asked. “Make them follow a trail of cookies back to the anomaly?”

 

“’Would have been a lot better than having to drag the flamin’ things back to it.”

 

It took them an hour to haul the dinosaurs back to the anomaly, even with the vampires’ superior strength, the soldiers and the help of three of the mall’s security guards. Sarah set up an anomaly locking device and closed it down into a tight ball of light in the air, advising the owner of the clothes shop to keep it closed until the anomaly disappeared. He was more than willing to do so, having no desire to even go back inside to check the damage never mind open it up again while the anomaly was still there.

 

~.~

 

By the time they got back to the ARC it was late and everyone else had gone home. Becker was still there, waiting for Angel, and offering to give Spike a lift home as well.

 

When he got inside the flat, Connor, Lester and the children were just finishing their tea.

 

“Spike! We saved you some spaghetti Bolognese,” Jessica announced.

 

Spike smiled at her. “Thanks, pet, but we stopped for something to eat on the way back.”

 

Jessica looked a bit disappointed.

 

“I’d love a cuppa, though.”

 

She beamed and hurried off to get him a mug, pouring him some from the teapot in the middle of the table.

 

“Guess what? I got an A for my essay!” she told him. “Miss Gupta said it was the best one.”

 

Letting Jessica tell him all about her first day back at school, Spike sat back and wondered how the hell his life had ended up like this. He’d spent hundreds of years being the bad boy, the rebel; he’d never expected to end up with a job and a read-made family. Sure, he’d taken care of Dawn in Sunnydale, and he’d even been one of the gang back there, but kids? Far from making him run for the hills as he’d thought it would, he actually liked it. This was the life he’d wanted when he was human, even if the ‘nice girl to settle down with’ had turned into two men.

 

“So, how did it go in Leeds?” Connor asked. “Any problems?”

 

Spike glanced at the children, listening to his every word. “Two trespassers,” he said carefully, “but we sent them back where they belonged. No injuries, but it’s still open. We had to leave the lads there to guard it.”

 

“Guard what?” David asked, chewing on his spaghetti.

 

“Please don’t talk with your mouth full,” Lester told him, before turning to Spike and Connor. “We can discuss this later.”

 

They got the chance a few hours later when David had gone to bed and Jessica was in her room, playing with Nancy and Sid. When she emerged to get a drink and all conversation in the living room stopped, she frowned. Staring at them for a moment, she went to get a glass of orange juice and went straight back to her room.

 

“So, we never did get to finish what we started this morning,” Spike said quietly, sliding closer to Lester on the sofa. “How’s about we head off to bed… Come on, James. It’ll be fine; no one was any the wiser the last time.”

 

The door to Jessica’s room opened again and she went to the kitchen to put her glass in the sink and Spike put some space between him and Lester again. Coming back, she stopped in the doorway, her hands on her hips.

 

“Every time I come in here you all stop talking,” she said, looking between them. “You were doing it the other day, too. I’m not a kid; I know that something is going on.”

 

“It’s nothing, love.”

 

“Are you talking about me?” she asked, the bravado fading slightly. “You are, aren’t you?”

 

Lester got to his feet, hurrying over to her. “We weren’t talking about you, I promise. We were just talking about work.”

 

“No you weren’t,” she insisted. “Or you would have just said that.”

 

Glancing back to Spike and Connor, Lester nodded minutely. If he’d been waiting for the right time, then it had just arrived kicking and screaming at his feet. The pair of them excused themselves, giving Lester and Jessica some privacy to talk. Lester knew where they’d be to come and find them when he was finished.

 

Jessica watched them leave before turning her worried expression to her dad as he led her to the sofa to sit down. For a while, they sat in silence as he worked out in his mind how to broach the subject, how to explain it to her.

 

“You know how your mum has been seeing Adam?” he began. She nodded. “Do you mind?”

 

She shook her head, frowning, looking confused as to where this was leading. “I like Adam. He’s kind of old but he’s nice.”

 

“He’s a year younger than me! That’s not old.” No, Lester told himself; that wasn’t the point. “What if I were to start seeing someone, too? You and David would always be the most important people in my life, that won’t change,” he added quickly. “And I would never try and replace your mum; no one could ever take that away.”

 

“I know, dad.”

 

Lester gauged her reactions as he continued. “When we were talking the other day, you didn’t seem uncomfortable with the fact that both Angel and Becker were men, and that they were dating,” Then, quieter, “How would you feel if I began dating a man?”

 

She was silent for a while, fiddling with a piece of cotton on the cuff of her pyjama sleeve, and Lester wondered if he should have just kept his mouth shut and not said anything. Her reactions the other day had been encouraging but perhaps this was pushing her too far.

 

“Are you?” she asked, still not looking at him.

 

“Am I what?”

 

“Going out with a man.”

 

Now or never, Lester told himself. “Yes. Jessica, I know you must have questions and I just want you to know that you can ask me anything.”

 

“Does mum know?”

 

Lester nodded. He had talked to Amelia about Connor and Spike a few months ago, right after they had been outed by Helen at the ARC. She attended the same gym as one of the women who worked in payroll for the ARC and, as with Jessica, he didn’t want her to find out through rumours and gossip.

 

“We talked about it and she said she just wants me to be happy,” he said. “Just as I’m glad that your mum is happy with Adam.”

 

Jessica looked up then, as though once she knew her mum was okay with it, then she could be as well. She did look a bit concerned when Lester continued, however.

 

“There’s something else,” he told her. “You know how most times there are two people, either men or women, in a relationship? Well, sometimes it’s three people.”

 

She smiled. “Like on Jeremy Kyle? There was this programme where the man had two girlfriends and they didn’t like each other and when they came on stage one of them slapped the other-”

 

Bloody hell, what _had_ she been allowed to watch?

 

“Not exactly, love. Sometimes, it can be three people who all love each other and they all get along really well.” He took a deep breath and said quickly, “Spike and Connor don’t just live here, they live with me. They’re both my boyfriends,” he added, seeing the slightly confused look on her face.

 

He could see her thinking it over, the slight frown on her face as she worked through the information in her own mind

 

“Jessica, if there’s anything you want to ask-”

 

She stood up. “Can I go to bed now?”

 

~.~

 

When he didn’t come to find them, Connor and Spike let themselves into his room to find him sitting on the bed, just staring into space.

 

“It didn’t go well then, I take it?” Connor asked sitting down beside him.

 

Lester just shook his head.

 

“What did she say?”

 

“Not a lot. She just said she wanted to go to bed and left.”

 

Spike crouched in front of him, hands on Lester’s knees to balance himself. “She’s a sharp kid,” he said. “Probably just wants to be on her own to get her head ‘round this. Give her a bit of time and she’ll be fine.”

 

“I hope so. What if she says something to David?” Lester said. “I can’t even think of having that conversation just yet.”

 

Connor smiled. “It’s a shame there isn’t one of those help books for kids that you could give him. Like those ones for dealing with bereavement.”

 

“I don’t think they make one for ‘Daddy and mummy got divorced and now daddy is living with two men’,” Spike pointed out. “Or a ‘Daddy is shagging a vampire’ one either.”

 

“You know, we should write one,” Connor suggested. “We could corner the market on this one.”

 

Spike laughed. “As far as we know, me and Angel are the only vamps here. So, unless Becker’s got a kid he’d not telling us about, I’m not sure there’d be much demand for it. Now if it was for Becker, you’d do better with a ‘How to train your nancy-boy vampire’.”

 

As Lester smiled at their bickering, Connor gave him a hug. “That’s better. Now, how about we all get some sleep and talk to her in the morning when she’s had time to process this. It was kind of a big thing for her to find out.”

 

He and Spike stood up to go back to their room, not wanting to make the situation worse by Jessica finding them in with Lester.

 

“I reckon you ought to tell her about me, too,” Spike said as they left. “She seemed more pissed that you were keeping things from her; one more big secret isn’t going to help.”

 

~.~

 

The following morning, Jessica emerged from her bedroom for breakfast and sat down at the table in silence. She mumbled a thank you when Connor poured her some cocoa-pops and passed her the milk but other than that, she didn’t say a word. David obviously knew that something was wrong as he kept looking between them, as though hoping that one of them would tell him. When no one did, he sighed and went back to his cereal.

 

“Are you taking me to school today, dad?” he asked a few minutes later, dutifully taking his empty bowl to the sink. 

 

Lester nodded. “Jessica, will it be okay if Connor gives you a lift to school?” When she shrugged her shoulders, he took it as a yes. “Connor, take the car then you and Spike can come straight to the ARC. David and I don’t mind a walk, do we?”

 

David looked happy with the thought of having his dad to talk to for the whole walk to school and hurried off to get his coat and bag, practically dragging his dad out of the door.

 

“So, pet, let’s have it,” Spike said to Jessica. “Whatever’s on your mind: tell us to piss off and stay away from your dad if you like. Just talk to us.”

 

At that, she looked up at him, surprised. “What? No! I wouldn’t do that. It’s just…”

 

“Just what?” Connor asked.

 

“I don’t understand how he could love mum and then suddenly like boys too. I mean, don’t you like one or the other?”

 

“Not necessarily,” Spike told her. “Before I met your dad and Connor, I was involved with a lass called Drusilla for a long time. Thought she was the love of my life. Then there was Buffy. Thought I loved her too, for a while,” he mused. “Anyway, my point is that sometimes it’s not one or the other; sometimes you just love who you love.”

 

She smiled at him for the first time that morning. “Okay. But he still should have told me,” she said, the smile fading again.

 

“He didn’t know how to,” Connor said. “He was worried that if you didn’t approve, that you wouldn’t want to spend time with him. He didn’t want to lose you.”

 

“Oh.”

 

Connor stood up and handed Jessica her coat. “Come on, time for school. Your dad will not be happy with us if you’re late.”

 

They were headed toward the car, parked in the underground car park under Lester’s block of flats, when Jessica paused and frowned at Spike.

 

“Why have you brought a blanket with you?”

 

Spike draped an arm over her shoulders and gave her a hug. “That, my little niblet, is a story for another time.”

 

~.~

 

The anomaly detector started wailing at around noon and causing Lester to look up from his paperwork. Two days of peace and quiet, he thought. He’d been enjoying the opportunity to get caught up on paperwork that didn’t involve field reports and requisitions to replace whatever equipment the team had broken while out chasing creatures. Between that and Becker’s constant requests for new gadgets and guns, he found himself saying no rather a lot.

 

“Lester, we’ve got another anomaly,” Connor announced, barging into his office.

 

Lester arched an eyebrow. “Yes, I can hear the alarms.”

 

Connor ignored his sarcasm. “It’s in the grounds of Greenfields School.”

 

When Lester appeared next to the vehicles, glaring at Danny until he relinquished his claim on the front seat, no one commented. Sure, they eyed him curiously, wondering why he was suddenly coming out to an anomaly with them. When Spike and Angel climbed in the back as well, Becker frowned.

 

“Are you sure you want to come? We can’t guarantee the anomaly will be under cover,” he told the two vampires.

 

The two of them didn’t move, staying seated.

 

“Greenfields is my daughter’s school,” Lester told Becker. “I won’t get in your way or interfere with your command, but I’m going.”

 

“Us too,” Spike announced, Angel agreeing with him.

 

Becker nodded, knowing that in Lester’s place he would do the same, and started the engine.

 

 

~.~

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

 

Twenty minutes later, they were pulling into the grounds of the school. So far there was no sign of an anomaly but the hand held detectors still insisted that it was here.

 

“Up there,” Connor said, pointing to the teacher at a second floor window, knocking on the glass and trying to tell them to keep away. He got out, heading for the doors, only to be stopped by the school’s caretaker.

 

“Don’t open that, lad.”

 

Becker and his soldiers came closer. “It’s okay. This is what we do,” he assured the man. “Now, what happened?”

 

He didn’t know where the anomaly had appeared as he’d been sweeping the gymnasium at the time, the caretaker told them, but there had been these odd animals. They were about the size of Great Danes, but with scaly skin and huge teeth. There hadn’t been many pupils in the gyms or workshops at that time and so the teachers had managed to get everyone up to the second floor, closing off the heavy fire doors behind them. He had come back out this way to lock the outer doors and call for help.

 

“I called the RSPCA,” he told them. “I thought, they catch strays and things, don’t they?”

 

“Not these kinds of strays,” Connor told him, turning to Becker. “It doesn’t sound like anything from the database, unless it’s an entirely undiscovered species. Or it could be from the future, not the past. I need to get a good look at one of them.”

 

They couldn’t just wait out here all day; they had to get to the anomaly and lock it down before anything else came through.

 

“Okay, folks,” Becker called to the teams. “I want everyone carrying tranquiliser guns and live ammo; we have no idea what these things are and we can’t risk them getting loose with the kids still in there. Tranqs first,” he said, seeing Abby’s disapproving look. “Live rounds only as a last resort.”

 

Moving around to the front of the building, they cautiously approached the door into the foyer, the windows allowing them to see that the area was clear of creatures. It was unlocked, but closed in order to keep the creatures contained.

 

“We go in here,” Becker told them.

 

Danny brought the vehicle closer, pulling up as close to the entrance as he could, climbing out, his hand on the back door handle. At Spike’s nod from inside, he pulled open the door, as Connor opened the one into the foyer. Under the cover of heavy blankets, a faint trail of smoke following them, Spike and Angel to make a dash for the door, racing inside out of the sunlight. Becker’s men moved in after them, spreading out to secure the area as the others followed the two vampires in.

 

Abby and Danny both had tranquiliser guns at the ready, going to join Becker’s men as he ordered them into search teams. Connor was already on his way to the offices with the caretaker, in search of the fire plans for the school. It would help them to have a floor plan, to make sure they didn’t miss any corridors where the creatures could slip by them.

 

“Becker, where do you want us?” Spike asked.

 

Becker instructed them to join the search teams but Lester opened his mouth to object. Then remembering his earlier promise not to step on Becker’s authority, he closed it again.

 

“Sir? If you’d prefer something else, it’s fine. We can handle the search.”

 

Lester smiled at Becker. “I was thinking that I should perhaps go and speak to the teachers upstairs, let them know what’s happening.”

 

Becker nodded. “Spike, go with him. Angel, maybe you should keep an eye on Connor.” He looked to Lester. “Go and make sure she’s alright,” he said quietly.

 

Lester and Spike set off toward the main stairs as Becker and the others waited for Connor to get back with the plans before setting off toward the gymnasiums and few classrooms on that level.

 

As they walked onto the second floor corridor, people watched from the small square windows in the classroom doors, eager to see what was going on. Moments later, a teacher emerged from one of the classrooms, looking each way down the corridor nervously before she stepped out fully.

 

“You really shouldn’t be here at the moment,” she said. “There are some animals loose-”

 

Lester smiled. “It’s alright. Myself and my colleagues downstairs are here to deal with those creatures. Who first saw them? It would be helpful if we could speak to that person.”

 

She pointed to the classroom on the far end of the corridor. “Janet Leeming. She was taking a PE lesson in Gym 2 when those things appeared. When we evacuated the ground floor, I saw her take the kids into the end room.”

 

Thanking her, Lester and Spike set off again, Lester pausing a few steps later. “I don’t suppose you know where form group 10F are at present, do you?”

 

She shook her head. “Sorry.”

 

The end classroom was packed with terrified looking children in sports kit, two teachers trying to calm them down. When Lester tried the door handle, one of the children squealed as though expecting to find one of the creatures trying to get in. A woman in her twenties in a tracksuit and trainers hurried over.

 

“Are you Janet Leeming?” Lester asked. When she nodded, he indicated for her to step outside. “We need to talk to you about the animals. I gather you were the first to see them?”

 

“I was. Look, I’ll be happy to answer whatever you like, but I’m not going out there.”

 

Spike shut the door and followed her to the desk at the front of the room where it was a bit quieter.

 

“Mr Lester? You’re Jessica’s father, aren’t you?” the other teacher in the room said, coming to join them. “What are you doing here?”

 

“My job. My team are downstairs tracking the creatures but I need a few things, such as where they first appeared, and how many there were.”

 

The PE teacher thought for a moment. “I think saw five of them, but I can’t be certain that there weren’t more. Or less; they all looked the same. To begin with we didn’t see them, but we could hear them. The door was propped open, into the corridor, and we could hear something coming, like a dog walking on tiles with that clicking sound. Only bigger, much bigger. Then one came inside.”

 

Spike had his mobile phone out, relaying the information to Becker and the team. Listening for a moment, he turned to the teachers.

 

“Is everyone accounted for?” he asked. “Is there anyone left down there?”

 

Mrs Leeming fell silent for a moment, her eyes going to Lester.

 

“What?”

 

“Jessica and five others got separated from us. They were near to the equipment cupboard, getting the volleyballs out and so rather than run past the animal, they locked themselves in there. I thought it would be safer.”

 

Spike could see Lester clench his fists at his sides as he glared at the teacher. “You just left my daughter down there? You had better hope she hasn’t a scratch on her, or you will never be teaching again. I’ll make certain of that.”

 

“We couldn’t go back for them!” she protested. “More of those animals appeared and if we didn’t move then, we wouldn’t have been able to get past them.”

 

Spike turned on his heel and stormed out, dialling Becker again as he filled them in on the situation.

 

“Where are you going? It’s not safe out there,” Mrs Leeming called after him.

 

Glowering at her, Spike paused. “No, it’s not, which is why we’re going to get Jessica.”

 

When he and Lester reached the end of the corridor that led to the gyms and classrooms, they found Angel waiting for them, along with Connor and Abby and a floor plan that had been printed off the computer.

 

“There are more of them down there than we thought,” Angel reported. “They’ve caught three so far, but Hils said they’ve managed to get through a fire door and into the main hall. Unfortunately, that means they’ve got access to the rest of the building.”

 

“So downstairs has been cleared?” Lester asked. “Good.”

 

He pulled open the door and marched through, following Connor’s directions, heading down to the lower level. It seemed that, although they had tranquilised the creatures that were down there, they hadn’t yet shut down the anomaly.

 

“Connor, find it and get it closed,” Lester snapped at him.

 

Connor hurried off with Abby at his side, gun raised to fend off any creatures that might come through as he locked the anomaly. They kept out of sight of the creatures as he followed the hand held detector to the classroom in the middle of the corridor.

 

“They’re definitely in there,” Angel said, looking at the storeroom door.

 

Beside him, Spike nodded. He could smell the fear radiating from the room, the girls trapped in there terrified of the creatures currently clawing and scratching at the door. Lester didn’t need to know that, though, and so the vampires kept quiet. He leaned out, watching as three of the creatures sniffed and clawed at the wooden door marked ‘storeroom’. Suddenly, one of them charged at it, head-butting it hard enough for the wood to creak, although it didn’t break. There was a squeal from inside the room, hastily cut off as though someone had clamped a hand over the screamer’s mouth. The smell of fear increased.

 

“We need a distraction,” Lester said, as they slammed into the door again and again. The wood was starting to buckle now, the metal handle bent and mangled after taking a direct hit.

 

“What we need is a gun,” Spike amended but their only gun was with Abby and she was still looking out for Connor as he locked the anomaly.

 

Or two pissed off vampires, Lester thought later. When the pair of them let their vampire side take over, faces changing and fangs showing, they were a sight to see. The second that the creatures saw them, they charged, snarling and attacking. In a way, Lester felt sorry for them as the two vampires fought together, taking down two of the creatures with brutal precision, going for their softer underbellies or throats. Spike snapped the neck of the last one and went over to the door.

 

The lock had been twisted under the assault leaving it unable to be opened, and so he aimed a booted foot at it and kicked, hard, sending the door slamming open. Six girls in shorts and t-shirts sat huddled together at the back of the room, squeezed under the shelving. When Spike barged in, the one nearest to him let out a whimper and tried to back away further. He frowned, then remembered, quickly shifting his face back to normal. The girls now watched him suspiciously, as though not really believing what they’d just seen.

 

He smiled, crouching down in front of Jessica. “Hiya, pet. Ready to get out of here?”

 

The other five girls looked at Jessica in surprise as she smiled and scrambled out, throwing her arms around Spike and hugging him.

 

“Your dad and Angel are just outside,” he told her.

 

“With the animals?!”

 

He shook his head, addressing the rest of them too. “The animals outside here are dead, and the rest of them have been tracked down and dealt with. It’s safe.”

 

With that, Jessica let him go and ran outside to her dad as Spike and Angel convinced the other girls it was really safe to leave, taking them out. When they saw the dead creatures in the corridor, they paled, trying not to look at them. One girl started crying.

 

“Hey, come on. You’re not supposed to cry when you get rescued,” Angel teased lightly, trying to keep his body between her and the dead creatures. “Swooning over the handsome heroes who did the rescuing, maybe, but not crying. Well, one handsome hero, and Spike.”

 

Spike turned and glared at him. “I can out-hero you any day of the week,” he grumbled.

 

“I notice you didn’t argue about the ‘handsome’ part,” Angel retorted.

 

“Oh, get stuffed.”

 

Angel sniggered. “What an eloquent response, William.”

 

“Don’t call me that, _Liam_.”

 

Their bickering was having the desired effect, taking the girls’ minds off the creatures. Jessica and the others went to get their clothes from the locker room, getting cold in just their shorts and t-shirts, hurrying as though expecting the three men to have left them again when they came back out. By the time they re-emerged, Connor and Abby had caught them up. Connor gave Jessica a hug, waving hello to Kelly, the friend Jessica had introduced him to that morning when he’d dropped her off at school. Becker and the rest of the team met them at the top of the stairs.

 

“All clear?” Lester asked them.

 

Becker nodded. “They’re all down; we’ll need Connor to open the anomaly so that we can shove them back through. Any more down there?”

 

“All dead, though we probably should remove them,” he said. The rest of the team headed down to deal with them, Becker staying behind to make sure everyone was alright.

 

“Clean-up in aisle five,” Angel muttered under his breath, causing Spike and Jessica to laugh.

 

She was looking a little less wide-eyed and jittery now, as were the others, and she gave Angel a smile.

 

“Angel? Thank you for coming to get us.”

 

Angel grinned back. “Any time.”

 

He saw one of the girls nudge her in the ribs and she turned. “Who are these people?” she whispered.

 

Jessica nodded. “That’s Angel, Spike, Connor and Becker. Spike and Connor live with my dad,” she announced proudly.

 

“Becker’s cute,” the girl whispered, oblivious to the fact that their entire conversation was being listened to by not only the man in question - who was currently blushing a nice shade of pink- but everyone else, too. “I bet he’s got a girlfriend, though.”

 

Jessica shook her head, smiling at the momentary look of delight on the other girl’s face. “Actually, he’s got Angel.”

 

Her friend looked them both over speculatively. “You mean they’re, _you know,_ like boyfriends?”

 

“Yep.”

 

Spike took in the embarrassed expression on Becker’s face and laughed. “Looks like you’ve got some competition,” he told Angel.

 

Becker just blushed even more and made the excuse of having to go and check on his team, hurrying off toward the gymnasiums again.

 

~.~

 

The creatures were sent back through the anomaly, even the ones that Spike and Angel had dispatched, and the headmistress informed that the building was clear. As the anomaly was still present, they were going to have to leave someone to watch it until it disappeared, keeping that classroom locked and off-limits until it did.

 

“I would also like to make a complaint regarding the fact that one of your teachers abandoned six children with those creatures. When we arrived, the creatures had almost broken through the door and into the room where the girls had sought refuge,” Lester told her. “Had we not gone to find them when we did, I doubt they would all have been here, unscathed, right now. When I leave my daughter in this establishment, I do so with the understanding that she will be looked after. Your staff have a duty of care to the pupils, one that does not include running away and hiding whilst they are in danger.”

 

As the headmistress attempted to apologise, he cut her off mid-sentence.

 

“My formal letter of complaint regarding Janet Leeming will be in the post tomorrow. Good day.”

 

Outside, Spike and Angel were waiting with Jessica and the other girls. Though they had calmed down, none of them were willing to leave their rescuers’ sides just yet. A young man in a slightly shabby grey suit was standing nearby, and Lester recognised him from the last parents evening as Jessica’s form tutor. When Lester came out, he held out his hand.

 

“Mr Lester, it’s good to see you again. Not the circumstances, of course. It’s been an eventful day,” he mused. “I called the girls’ parents to come and collect them. Lord knows what I’m going to tell them when they get here.”

 

Jessica, still almost leaning against Spike’s side, looked up at her dad. “Does that mean we can go home?”

 

He smiled at her. “Soon, love. I need to stay here for a little while longer, but Spike and Connor could take you home if you wanted.”

 

Spike nudged her gently, whispering, “If you say yes then we get the afternoon off as well.”

 

Jessica smiled. “Okay. But you’re coming home soon, aren’t you, dad?”

 

“As soon as I talk to the other parents.”

 

Mr Farrington, the form tutor, looked relieved to have some help explaining this. Especially as, so far, the headmistress hadn’t even emerged from her office to check on the girls, Lester noted.

 

A few minutes later, Connor came in through the main doors to tell them that they were ready to go.

 

Jessica, Spike and Angel followed him out, the two vampires keeping in the shadows as far as they could before tugging their coats over their heads and making a run for it, scrambling in through the door that Connor had left open for them. Jessica followed at a normal pace and climbed into the back to sit next to Spike, frowning at them.

 

“You two are weird, you know that?” She got comfortable and clipped her seatbelt on, before asking hesitantly, “Spike? When you first came into the room, why did your face look strange?”

 

Spike glanced at Angel over her head, looking for some help fielding this one. He didn’t know if Lester intended to tell her what Spike was, but the girl was asking now. And, as he’d said to Lester days earlier, she was likely to be more annoyed if they kept things a secret from her. Unfortunately, he couldn’t exactly get back out of the car and go speak to Lester without the braving the sunlight again. He really didn’t want to do that.

 

Angel looked up as Connor approached the car, pointing it out and sidetracking Jessica from her current question. Hopefully, getting home would make her forget about it for at least a few hours.

 

“You guys mind if I tag along?” he asked Spike and Connor. “Hils is going to be busy for a while here and he’s kind of my ride home.”

 

~.~

 

Jessica was nothing if not persistent. She managed a whole hour before going back to her earlier question and Spike and Angel’s deflection of it.

 

“Why don’t you eat?” she asked, seeing Spike and Angel with only a mug of tea each as she and Connor devoured a turkey, lettuce and tomato sandwich each.

 

“I eat,” Spike protested. Just not food, he added silently.

 

“Well, I’ve never seen you,” she pointed out. “And that door was like, super heavy, and you just kicked it open. That was cool, by the way.”

 

She really was her father’s daughter, Connor thought as he watched the two vampires squirm under her questions. She was like a dog with a bone when she set her mind to something and he had a feeling that she wasn’t going to back off from this until she had an answer she was happy with.

 

“Okay, pet,” Spike said. “Here’s the truth. Me and Angel are vampires.”

 

The look she gave them reminded Connor of the one he used to get from Lester, the one that said ‘stop playing silly buggers; it’s getting annoying’.

 

“Vampires? As in, blood and fangs and turning into bats and can’t go out in sunlight-”

 

She paused, thinking as she said that last part, remembering all the times that the two of them had raced across sun lit areas, with coats or blankets over their heads.

 

“No, you can’t be, because they don’t exist except in those dumb movies.”

 

She fell off the end of the sofa as Angel’s fangs lengthened and his face shifted, backing up as fast as she could. Getting to her feet, she raced over to Connor, clutching his arm as she half hid behind him.

 

“You’re- But-”

 

Connor took her hand and eased her out from her hiding place. “It’s okay,” he promised. “Ignore what you know from the movies- this is Spike and Angel, the same people you’ve been hanging out with all week.”

 

It took a while to convince her that the two vampires weren’t actually going to hurt her, but eventually she sat back down on the sofa again. She kept watching them nervously, but after a while even that faded.

 

“So, you’re don’t kill people?”

 

Both of them shook their heads, and Connor heaved a sigh of relief. Now was not the time to start telling her that mere decades ago, the pair had been thought of as two of the most vicious bloodsuckers of their time.

 

“We both have souls,” Spike told her. “Though some of us had to actually earn them,” he added with a pointed glance at Angel. “See, when a vampire is made, a demon takes over. It kills and hurts people with no sense of right and wrong because there isn’t a soul, a conscience, in there too. Me and Angel got our moral compasses back when we got our souls.”

 

Jessica nodded. “That makes sense. You know, up until a few minutes ago, I thought those weird animals attacking the school would be the strangest thing to happen to me today.” She pondered it a moment longer. “So, if you’re really vampires, can you fly?”

 

“No.”

 

“Do you sparkle if you stand in the sun?” she asked.

 

Angel made a disgusted sound. “No we damn well don’t. Real vampires do not sparkle; we get caught in the sun and we burn, plain and simple. Sparkle! Bloody Twilight.”

 

“Yeah, that woman wouldn’t know a real vampire if it jumped up and bit her,” Spike agreed. “Honestly, since that sodding film came along that’s what everyone thinks we are- a bunch of namby-pamby sparkly wusses.”

 

By the time Lester got home an hour later with Becker and David, Jessica’s initial fear had vanished completely. She looked up as David came bouncing in, telling them about how fantastic his football practice had gone after school but then he stopped. Glancing around at them all, his gaze finally settled on his sister.

 

“What?”

 

Jessica looked up at Spike and Angel, eyes asking her silent question. At Angel’s nod, she beamed.

 

“Spike and Angel are vampires!”

 

He just rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right.”

 

“Really. Spike, show him.”

 

David let out a rather girly yelp as Spike let the demon in him come to the surface, insisting that Spike had just surprised him and that he wasn’t scared, thank you very much. Like Jessica, his fear vanished quickly given that he knew his dad wouldn’t let them be around Spike or Angel if they were dangerous.

 

“This is awesome. So, you’re like real vampires? Do you drink blood? Can you turn into a bat? Do you sleep in a coffin?”

 

Spike glanced over at Connor, thinking that there was something really familiar about this, remembering a year ago when he met a strange young man on the Forth Bridge. One who also asked way too many question.

 

“Do you sparkle?”

 

Both men turned and glared, just as Connor clapped a hand over David’s mouth.

 

“We don’t mention the T word,” Jessica told him with a giggle. “They get a bit cranky about it.”

 

Lester headed for the kitchen, indicating for Connor to follow him.

 

“How is she?” he asked. “She seems a lot happier than she did back at the school.”

 

Connor turned to watch as Spike pulled vampire faces for David while he and Angel fended off the kind of questions that only an eight year old could come up with. Things such as: if you only drink blood, do you need to use the bathroom? Or, how do you do your hair if you don’t have a reflection? That one was from Jessica, but he had to admit it was one of the first things he’d asked too when he met Spike.

 

“She’s fine. You’re not mad that we told her, are you? She’d seen Spike back at the school, seen his face, and she kept asking.”

 

Lester shook his head. It had to happen sooner or later, just as he’d needed to tell her that he was involved with the two men. Whether or not he would have told David was another matter. He wasn’t worried that his son would be scared of them, quite the opposite in fact. David had a knack for letting things slip that he wasn’t supposed to mention. It came in handy when one of the children had broken something and he wanted to know who but, when it came to keeping the existence of two vampires a secret, however, that wasn’t a good thing. He was likely to see it as something cool to tell his friends rather than keeping it quiet for the sake of Angel and Spike.

 

“I’ll have to talk to him about keeping this to himself,” he mused aloud as they went back into the living room. “Okay, you two have homework,” he told the children. “Go on, you can annoy Spike and Angel later.”

 

Angel stood up. “Actually, I think Becker is getting impatient so I’d better go,” he said, following Becker out of the door.

 

“Gee, thanks,” Spike grumbled, realising that he was being left to fend off the next round of questions that the kids would likely be thinking up when they were meant to be doing their homework.

 

A few hours later, Lester looked around at the now-empty living room, the children gone off to their beds, and sat down on the sofa, exhausted. It had been a dreadful day, that moment of fear upon hearing that it was his daughter’s school under attack from the creatures, and then seeing her terrified and cowering in that small room with the others.

 

“It’s okay,” Connor told him, sitting down beside him, as he voiced that weariness. “She’s fine. She didn’t get hurt- none of the kids did- and it’s safe again at the school.”

 

Lester nodded. “I know that, but she’s just a child; she shouldn’t have to be dealing with my world.”

 

“But she had to, and she handled it pretty well,” Connor pointed out. “I’ve seen adults fall apart when they come face to face with the creatures, but she didn’t. She’s definitely a Lester,” he joked.

 

“Look, maybe its better this way,” Spike added. “It’s like everything else; she was going to find out sometime. We had a talk on the way back from the school and she’s not going to tell her brother about the creatures, or about us, for that matter.”

 

Lester heaved a sigh of relief. “Good, because I don’t intend to have that conversation with him for another few years at least.”

 

Spike looked at the clock on the wall and stood up, holding his hands out to both Connor and Lester.

 

“Come on; bed.”

 

Both followed, Lester not even protesting that the children might see as he followed the other two into Connor’s room. Right now, he just wanted to go to sleep, knowing that the children were safe and that he had Connor and Spike there with him, and rest.

 

Tomorrow, he would have to call Amelia: informing his ex-wife that their children knew about the vampires (and actually telling Amelia that one of the men living with him _was_ a vampire); that Jessica now knew about his living arrangements; that she had been attacked at the school by possible future predators.

 

If he thought talking to Jessica about his living arrangement had been scary, it was nothing compared to breaking the rest of the news to his ex.

 

 

 


End file.
